The raiders were only 15ft from being able to dig upwards to their target, a cashpoint filled with £70,000 at a Blockbuster video store.

But they were foiled when workmen laying electricity cables at the new Fallowfield Retail Park in Manchester smashed through the roof with their JCB.

One stunned worker said: "It stretched about 20 metres from a railway embankment, then headed towards the cashpoint. They were almost there.

"I wasn't worried about it collapsing while I was down there, they had made a good job of the supports. Even the police were impressed with the workmanship."

The tunnel - just like the ones built in war film The Great Escape - was a complicated structure to steal just £70,000. It is thought the "mole in the wall" gang might have planned to use it to repeatedly plunder the machine or believed it contained more cash.

Police are still trying to trace the gang. The passage is being filled with concrete.